5 reasons why Airbus went from struggling outsider to beating Boeing

• Airbus has won more orders than Boeing for five consecutive years.
• The European manufacturer made its mark in the US by leasing four A300s to Eastern Air Lines for free.
• The A320's revolutionary fly-by-wire design and the Boeing 737 Max groundings help boost Airbus.

Boeing was founded in 1916, just 13 years after the Wright brothers' first flight. It would be another half a century before Airbus came along.

Europe wanted to challenge America's aviation dominance by building its own company. The French, British, and German governments started planning in 1967 before Airbus was officially founded three years later.

After a challenging start, Airbus has now had more orders than Boeing for five consecutive years, with 2,319 in 2023 compared with 1,456 for the American company.

Here are five key moments that helped Airbus gain the upper hand.

1. Bernard Lathière's bold A300 bet

The A300 was not just the first Airbus plane, but also the world's first twin-engined widebody jet.

When it first took flight in 1972, all other double-aisle jets had three or four engines, like the Boeing 747.

But Airbus struggled to win orders and carried on despite not getting the 75 it said it needed to start making the plane.

Airbus owes much to a bold bet made by Bernard Lathière, its managing director from 1975 to 1985.

Eastern Air Lines had been a top US carrier, but by the late 1970s was struggling with big debts.

In 1977 Lathière agreed to lease Eastern four A300s for six months for nothing. In the 2014 documentary "Airbus vs Boeing: The Jumbo Jet Race" he said he was nearly fired for doing so.

It meant Airbus had a foothold on Boeing's home turf. Eastern then ordered 23 A300s for $778 million, pleased with its lower fuel consumption, per The Washington Post.

2. The fly-by-wire A320

Airbus didn't find real success until the advent of the single-aisle A320 in 1987.

As the first jet rolled out of the factory in Toulouse, France, it was christened by Prince Charles and Princess Diana — a sign that Airbus wasn't messing around.

But the A320's real genius was using fly-by-wire technology only found in fighter jets and Concorde until then.

It replaces mechanical flight controls with computer-controlled systems to process the pilots' input and is considered safer because there are fewer points of failure.

Plus it's cheaper for operators because computers are easier to fix, and fewer parts and lighter wires meant better fuel efficiency too.

The A320 went on to become the world's second-best-selling airliner, behind the Boeing 737.

3. Government subsidies

As Airbus started to become a threat to Boeing, it began to face more scrutiny.

In 1993, Bill Clinton provoked tensions as he visited Boeing's factory after it announced layoffs, the Post reported at the time. The president blamed Airbus for the American company's troubles and he criticized the billions in subsidies that Airbus received from European governments.

Airbus and the governments denied those claims, before a trade war ensued as both sides imposed tariffs on the other.

After the US held talks with the UK, France, Germany, and Spain in 2004, it filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization. The European Union also filed a tit-for-tat lawsuit accusing the US of giving unfair subsidies to Boeing, per Reuters.

The dispute took no less than 17 years to be resolved.

The WTO found that both Airbus and Boeing had illegally received billions in government subsidies, and permitted tariffs to be imposed as a consequence. A truce was struck in 2021 to end the tariffs.

4. The A320neo

Airbus introduced the next generation of its popular short-haul A320 jet, and it was quick to make a mark.

The neo — "new engine option" — was so popular because it was quieter, more fuel efficient, and therefore cheaper for airlines to operate.

Its large winglets, more than 7 feet high, also helped reduce fuel burn. Airbus says it cut fuel costs by a fifth compared to previous models.

The A320neo set records at the 2011 Paris Air Show, winning 667 orders worth $60 billion.

That left Boeing desperate to catch up, so it accelerated development of the 737 Max — the fourth generation of its narrow-body jet.

5. 737 Max groundings

The more fuel-efficient engines that Boeing needed to compete with the neo posed a design problem for a plane that first flew in the 1960s. Because they were larger, they didn't fit underneath the wings of the plane.

Boeing decided to move the engines forward and upwards instead — but this affected the 737's aerodynamics by making it more likely to pitch upwards in some scenarios.

As a remedy, a software called MCAS (Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System) that automatically pushed the nose down if the "angle of attack" was too steep.

But it took data from only one of two sensors, which malfunctioned in the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crashes.

It wasn't long before regulators around the world grounded the 737 Max. Boeing's newest jet didn't fly again for 20 months — the longest period ever for an American airliner.

In 2019, Airbus beat Boeing on plane orders for the first time since the A320neo took the Paris Air Show by storm eight years earlier.

The European company has kept the crown since then, and even broke records last year.

As Boeing and its 737 Max face more scrutiny following the Alaska Airlines blowout, Airbus seems likely to keep flying high.